Rotary gas engine



July 28, 1925. r V 7 1,547,991

I I A. F. w oo|: ET AL ROTARY GAS ENGINE 1920 s Sheets-Sheet 1 Fil July 28, 1925. 4 1,547,991

- A. F. WQOD ET AL ROTARY-GAS ENGINE Filed May 5, 1920' a Sheets-Sheet 2 lwuwntm 1 23 Wad A Wad July 2a, 1925. 1,547,991

A. F. WOOD ET AL ROTARY (ms ENGINE Filed May 5', 1920 s Sheets-Sheet 5 3 vwzmtom Grim Patented July 28, 1925. V

UNITED STATES AARON FRANKLIN WOOD, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, AND WILLIAM RALPH WOOD,

0F HUNTINGTON. "INDIANA.

' ROTARY GAS ENGINE.

Application filed May 5,

To all whom it may cancer/t:

Be it knownthat we, AARON F. W001) and WILLIAM R. WOOD, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively, at Kansas City and Huntington, in the counties of Jackson and Huntington, States of Missouri and Indiana, have invented a new and useful Rotary Gas Engine, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to rotary gas engines, one of itsobjects being to provide arcuate explosion chambers or cylinders each of which contains a piston, the cylinders and pistons being mounted for relative movement during their bodily rotation as the result of explosions which take. place successively Within the cylinders and which explosions result in the application of power along lines substantially tangent to the field of movement of the engine, thus materially increasing the efliciency of the motor by utilizing more of the expended. power than has heretofore been possible. I

A further object is to provide a structure of this character which is compact, simple and durable and will not readily get out of order. j l

I WVith the foregoing and other objects in View, which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter de scribed and claimed, it being understood that, within the scope of what is claimed, changes in the precise embodiment of the invent-ion shown can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.v

In the accompanying drawings the preferred form of the invention hastbeen shown.

In said drawings Figure 1 is a central horizontal section through the motor.

Figure 2 is a view thereof partly in end elevation'and partly in section. Figure 3 is a top plan view of the differentialmechanism of the motor, adjacent parts being shown in section. 1

Figure at is an enlarged section. through the valve mechanism of one of the cylinders, said section being on an enlarged scale and taken'on line H, Figure 2.

Figure 5 is an elevation of the wabble disk showing the top gear of the differential in section. i

1920. Serial No. 379,060.

, Figure 6' is an enlarged section on line 66, Figure 5. 7

Referring to the figures by characters of reference 1 designates the main shaft of the engine, the same being provided withtubular end portions 2 extending into stationary bearings 3 and fastened to the bearings by cross bolts-4 or any other suitable means. To an intermediate portion of this shaft is secured a wabble disk 5, the same being held against rotation by being fixedly secured to the shaft by any suitable means provided for that purpose.

Bearing cones 1 near the bearings 3 and are engaged by balls 7 held within races 8 each disposed in the en'd"portion of a tubular extension 9. prO ecting from opposite ends of a shell or.

6 are attached to the shaft.

housing 10 which, obviously, will rotate bodily uponthe shaft 1. Secured in the housing'on' bearing bolts 11 or the like are bevel gears 12 and 13 which are oppositely disposed and have their inner faces concaved so as to permit the periphery of the wabbl e disk 5 to extend close toand work along the innerfaceszof the gears. A top gearlt extends over the disk 5 and meshes with gears 15 and 16. This gear 14 has spacedrearslt which straddle the periphery of the wabble diskfso as to be rotation about the disk.

The opposed gears 12 and 13 mesh with opposed bevel gears 15 and 16 which are shifted by V mounted. forrotation: on the shaft '1 and a are provided with extension-sleeves 17 projecting into the tubular extensions 9 and carrying at their outer ends bevel gears 18.

J ournaled' within each of the tubular extensions 9 are diametrically opposed shafts 19 provided at their inner ends with bevel gears 20 which mesh with gears 18, and at their outer. ends with bevel gears 21 which mesh. with gears 22 carried by shafts 23 which are journaled in the ends of the housmg or shell 10 and within bearing brackets 24 mounted on the tubular extensions: 9.

Each of these shafts 23 is provided with two cams 25 and 26. The shaft 19 carried by one of the tubular extensions 9 is dis posed along a line arranged 90 in advance of the corresponding shaft 19 in the other tubular extension 9. Suitably connected to the ends 'of the shell or housing 10 are arcuate explosive chainbers or cylinders 27, 28, 29 and 30, the cylinexternal atmosphere while the intake port communicates, through a pipe 34, with a gas chamber 35. Two of these gas chambers are provided, each being located within one of the tubular extensions 9 and being in communication with the adjacent hollow portion of shaft 1 through ports 36.

A valve 37 normally closes each of the in take ports 32 and has a stem 38 provided with a spring 39 for holding the valve normally upon its seat. This stem 38 bears against a roller 40 carried by one end of a bell crank lever 41, said bell crank lever being journaled in a bracket 42 carried by the tubular extension 9 adjacent thereto. The other end of the bell crank lever has a roller 43 which engages and is adapted to be actuated by one of the cams 26.

The exhaust port 33 is normally closed by a valve 44 the stem 45 of which extends inwardly therefrom, there being a spring 46 on the stem for holding the valve normally to its seat. This stem is likewise adapted to be engaged by another belt crank lever similar to the lever 41 and adapted to be actuated by one of the cams 25.

A piston 48 is mounted within each of the cylinders and is provided at one end with an arcuate rod 49 extending from the open end of the cylinder and formed inte- 1 gral with or connected to a radial arm 50 carried by one of the extension sleeves 17, these radial arms working within slots 51 formed within the tubular extensions 9. Packing rings 52 and 53 can be provided 1 between the extension sleeves 17 and the tubular extensions 9 and at opposite sides of the arms 50 so as to prevent the escape of gas through the slots 51 from the chambers 35.

A spark plug 54 is carried by the head of I each cylinder and may be provided with bearing 7. Assuming that gas has been compressed in the head of cylinder 27 and that the spark is being applied from the spark plug 54, it will be obvious that when the explosion takes place there will be a push against the head of the cylinder 27 and a push in the opposite direction against the piston 48 in said cylinder. The piston 48, however, cannot travel backwards because its connecting arm 50' is firmly attached to the differential gear 16. This gear is free to move on the main shaft 1 but is in mesh with the gear 14. This latter gear has ears 14 which straddle the wabble disk 5 attached rigidly to the shaft 1. Consequently when the thrust above mentioned comes against the piston 48 and tends to turn the gear 16, it cannot move because gear 14 holds the parts locked. On the other hand the entire engine, except the pistons, will be free to move and the result is a rotation of the engine in the direction indicated by the arrow in Figure 2.

It will be observed that as the engine turns on its axis the gear 14 will move therewith because it is connected to the gear case or housing 10 in the same manner as are the gears 12 and 13. As'the ears 14 slide along the disk 5, which is tilted at an angle to the main shaft, the said gear 14 will necessarily be moved from the left to the right side of the gear case or housing, thus turning the gear 14 sufiiciently to the right to keep the gear 16 stationary or nearly so, while the entire motor travels onehalf of the revolution. On the completion of this one-half revolution the ears 14, and consequently gear 14, will be turnedin the opposite direction during the remaining half of the revolution. The result of this action is to make the'piston 48 catch up I with the advancing end portion of its cylinder during the latter half of the revolution and to arrive exactly at the place it was when the explosion took place. As the motor rotates about the fixed shaft and the bevel gear 18, which is rigidly attachedto the shaft 1, it sets in motion the chain of gears 20, 21 and 22 which operate the cam shafts 23. lVhen the motor has made onehalf a revolution the cam 25 has turnedonefourth a revolution and has begun to shift the bell crank 47 so as to open the exhaust valve. The exhaust valve is open during the second half of the first revolution. During the first half of the second revolution the cam 26 approaches the bell crank lever 41 and opens the intake valve. During the second half of the second revolution gas is compressed in cylinder head 31 and the same operations are repeated again. The valve gears are so arranged that during the first half of the first revolution, when power is being applied to the motor, the intake valve 37 is moved by the cam operated bell crank 41 so as to open and allow the cylinder to fill with gas. During the second half of the first revolution, when cylinder 27 is exhausting, cylinder 28 is compressing. During the first half of the second revolution while cylinder 27 is intaking, cylinder 28 is firing. During the second half of the second revolution while cylinder 27 is compressing, cylinder 28 is exhausting. The two cylinders 29 and 30 on the opposite side of the gear case operate in exactly the same manner as hereinbefore described except that they are timed one revolution ahead or behind cylinders 27 and 28 with the result that one explosion is obtained every onehalf revolution of the engine.

It will be obvious that a motor such as herein described is advantageous because power is applied to the moving parts on a tangent to a circle whose center is the center of the main shaft.

WVhat is claimed is:

1. A rotary explosive engine including arcuate cylinders mounted for rotation about a common axis, pistons therein, cooperating beveled gears for holding the pistons against retrograde movement during each explosion in a cylinder, thereby to impart a thrust to said cylinder at a tangent to its circle of rotation, a stationary inclined disk and means operated by the rotation of the engine and cooperating with the disk for successively rotating said gears back and forth to shift each piston relative to its cylinder to exhaust spent gases, draw in a charge, and compress the charge.

2. In a rotary explosive engine the combination with a stationary shaft and a disk fixed thereto and disposed obliquely relative to the shaft, of a motor casing mounted for rotation upon the shaft, meshing beveled gears movable with the casing and revoluble about the shaft, another gear meshing with two of the gears on the shaft and slidably engaging the peripheral portion of the disk to impart back and forth rotation to the first named gears, cylinders revoluble with the casing, pistons working within the cylinders and connected to and movable with opposed gears on the shaft during the rotation of said gears relative to the cylinders.

3. A rotary explosive engine including a fixed shaft, a housing mounted for rotation thereon and having tubular extensions constituting gas chambers, there being passages within the shaft and opening into said chambers for directing gas thereto, cylinders carried by and revoluble with the casing and concentric with the shaft, means for conducting gas from the chambers to the respective cylinders, meshing gears within the casing and revoluble therewith, an obliquely disposed disk fixed upon the shaft, means upon one of the gears for slidably engaging the periphery of said disk during the rotation of the casing and gears, a piston adapted to work Within each cylinder while revolving therewith about the shaft and connections between the pistons and certain of the gears.

In testimony that we claim the foregoing as our own, we have hereto affixed our signatures in the presence of two witnesses.

AARON FRANKLIN WOOD. WVILLIAM RALPH WOOD.

Witnesses EMMETT A. KING,

LULU A. Wool). 

